4 ms·

I'm pretty pissed somebody knocked that tree down, and it is on the other side of the world. I can't imagine how pissed the locals were. Sure hope, for his sa

by Dalgar 17y ago

I'm pretty pissed somebody knocked that tree down, and it is on the other side of the world. I can't imagine how pissed the locals were. Sure hope, for his sake, the guy sobered up soon enough and got out of there before they found out who did it...

karl11 17y ago
I have the same sentiments. I was going to say this is one of the saddest things I've ever read.
- camccann 17y ago
  I was going to say this is one of the saddest things I've ever read. Approximately 150,000 people died yesterday. In fact, another dozen or so probably died while you were reading that sentence. If you were in a room with all the people dying at any given moment, you wouldn't even have time to meet their gaze to say "goodbye" fast enough to keep up. That's a dozen thinking, breathing people, each with their own hopes and fears, memories and regrets. Many with friends and family who loved them deeply; children who'll never again see their mother's smile, wives who'll never again embrace their husband. Scores of people now grieving, and all kinds of friendships ended as each life fades into the night. But, yeah. Shame about that tree, eh? I don't mean this as a criticism of you personally; I had the same reaction to the destruction of the tree. It's just an interesting testament to the irrationality of the human emotional response that we feel sad for an unusual tree, but feel little for the immense magnitude of human loss that occurs constantly.
  - RevRal 17y ago
    It's just an interesting testament to the irrationality of the human emotional response that we feel sad for an unusual tree, but feel little for the immense magnitude of human loss that occurs constantly. Brings back memories of people getting upset about the dogs being killed in Wolfenstein 3D, but not the humans.
  - iamwil 17y ago
    Perhaps none as unique as that tree.
    - Eliezer 17y ago
      Congratulations. You attach the lowest value to human life that I've heard assigned in all of 2010 so far. Just to be clear, would you like to state a value in utilons for the tree and a value for each of the 150,000 lives lost in a day? Also, how unique does a human brain with 20 trillion synapses have to be before it is at least as unique as an unusually isolated tree? Very unique, apparently, if not one out of 150,000 people qualifies. That's more people than live in all of the city of Santa Clara. But then if everyone in Santa Clara died tomorrow, why, probably not a single one of them ever had a thought, a feeling, an unwritten poem, that was as worth preserving as a tree. I'm sorry if I sound a little sharp here, but I wouldn't trade 150,000 trees for one human being. I am honestly horrified that at least nine other people voted you up. This is a dangerous planet. Human beings should stick together.
      - danparsonson 17y ago
        Well, not all of us elevate humanity above the other life on this planet; indeed, some of the important problems we humans face today are a direct result of the kind of attitude that one human being is worth at least 150,000 trees - that is, that we feel freely able to take as much other life as we deem necessary for our survival. This planet is indeed dangerous, but consider how much of that danger is caused by us and threatens both humans and other species. One of the things we could do to help change that would be to learn to see equivalent beauty and value in other life beyond our own.
        swombat 17y ago
        Having some ecological sensitivity doesn't imply valuing trees (even 150'000 of them) more than human beings. On the contrary: the only value of those 150'000 trees is to enable us to live better, happier lives in a more human-friendly world. Extreme statement: If there was a way to replace every single tree in the world with a plastic equivalent that looked and felt the same, and performed the same functions as a real tree (oxygen generation, soil processing, biological niche, etc).. if there was a way to do this and save a single human life, I would do it.
  - megaduck 17y ago
    One tragedy does not make another tragedy less painful or profound. The world is full of infinite joys and sorrows, and we can only focus on one at a time. That's the blessing and curse of being human. So, tonight some of us grieve for a tree. You may grieve for other things if you choose, but that doesn't diminish our loss.
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- karl11 17y ago
  Don't know if anyone will see this comment, so long after the post came up, but I wanted to add that obviously this was not the saddest thing I have ever read, nor do I value trees more than human life. There was, however, a dramatic mood shift when reading this article from 'Wow! That's awesome!' to 'Holy crap! It was destroyed by a drunk driver? That's terrible!'. In any case, I never expected such a dizzying comment thread to follow.
dasil003 17y ago
I feel the same way about drunk assholes shooting the caprocks off of these: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kasha-Katuwe_Tent_Rocks_National_Monument http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kasha-Katuwe_Tent_Rocks_Nationa...
baddox 17y ago
The story would be funnier if a drunk guy had planted a tree halfway between this tree and the nearest tree, thus ruining the record as "most isolated tree."

by Dalgar 17y ago

karl11 17y ago

I have the same sentiments. I was going to say this is one of the saddest things I've ever read.

camccann 17y ago
I was going to say this is one of the saddest things I've ever read. Approximately 150,000 people died yesterday. In fact, another dozen or so probably died while you were reading that sentence. If you were in a room with all the people dying at any given moment, you wouldn't even have time to meet their gaze to say "goodbye" fast enough to keep up. That's a dozen thinking, breathing people, each with their own hopes and fears, memories and regrets. Many with friends and family who loved them deeply; children who'll never again see their mother's smile, wives who'll never again embrace their husband. Scores of people now grieving, and all kinds of friendships ended as each life fades into the night. But, yeah. Shame about that tree, eh? I don't mean this as a criticism of you personally; I had the same reaction to the destruction of the tree. It's just an interesting testament to the irrationality of the human emotional response that we feel sad for an unusual tree, but feel little for the immense magnitude of human loss that occurs constantly.
- RevRal 17y ago
  It's just an interesting testament to the irrationality of the human emotional response that we feel sad for an unusual tree, but feel little for the immense magnitude of human loss that occurs constantly. Brings back memories of people getting upset about the dogs being killed in Wolfenstein 3D, but not the humans.
- iamwil 17y ago
  Perhaps none as unique as that tree.
  - Eliezer 17y ago
    Congratulations. You attach the lowest value to human life that I've heard assigned in all of 2010 so far. Just to be clear, would you like to state a value in utilons for the tree and a value for each of the 150,000 lives lost in a day? Also, how unique does a human brain with 20 trillion synapses have to be before it is at least as unique as an unusually isolated tree? Very unique, apparently, if not one out of 150,000 people qualifies. That's more people than live in all of the city of Santa Clara. But then if everyone in Santa Clara died tomorrow, why, probably not a single one of them ever had a thought, a feeling, an unwritten poem, that was as worth preserving as a tree. I'm sorry if I sound a little sharp here, but I wouldn't trade 150,000 trees for one human being. I am honestly horrified that at least nine other people voted you up. This is a dangerous planet. Human beings should stick together.
    - danparsonson 17y ago
      Well, not all of us elevate humanity above the other life on this planet; indeed, some of the important problems we humans face today are a direct result of the kind of attitude that one human being is worth at least 150,000 trees - that is, that we feel freely able to take as much other life as we deem necessary for our survival. This planet is indeed dangerous, but consider how much of that danger is caused by us and threatens both humans and other species. One of the things we could do to help change that would be to learn to see equivalent beauty and value in other life beyond our own.
      - swombat 17y ago
        Having some ecological sensitivity doesn't imply valuing trees (even 150'000 of them) more than human beings. On the contrary: the only value of those 150'000 trees is to enable us to live better, happier lives in a more human-friendly world. Extreme statement: If there was a way to replace every single tree in the world with a plastic equivalent that looked and felt the same, and performed the same functions as a real tree (oxygen generation, soil processing, biological niche, etc).. if there was a way to do this and save a single human life, I would do it.
- megaduck 17y ago
  One tragedy does not make another tragedy less painful or profound. The world is full of infinite joys and sorrows, and we can only focus on one at a time. That's the blessing and curse of being human. So, tonight some of us grieve for a tree. You may grieve for other things if you choose, but that doesn't diminish our loss.
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karl11 17y ago
Don't know if anyone will see this comment, so long after the post came up, but I wanted to add that obviously this was not the saddest thing I have ever read, nor do I value trees more than human life. There was, however, a dramatic mood shift when reading this article from 'Wow! That's awesome!' to 'Holy crap! It was destroyed by a drunk driver? That's terrible!'. In any case, I never expected such a dizzying comment thread to follow.

dasil003 17y ago

I feel the same way about drunk assholes shooting the caprocks off of these: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kasha-Katuwe_Tent_Rocks_National_Monument http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kasha-Katuwe_Tent_Rocks_Nationa...

baddox 17y ago

The story would be funnier if a drunk guy had planted a tree halfway between this tree and the nearest tree, thus ruining the record as "most isolated tree."